Michael Swickard's new novel about New Mexico

From KRQE-TV.com - JERI CLAUSING,Associated Press - ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - At a time when voters have begun taking to town hall meetings to express their frustration and anger with Congress' handling of the debt debate, only two of New Mexico's five congressmen and senators are planning to hold the traditional summer forums for constituent feedback. Sens. Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman as well as Congressman Martin Heinrich — all Democrats — say they are forgoing town hall meetings this summer. Udall and Heinrich, who is running to replace the retiring Bingaman, say they are instead focused on the economy and jobs. "I think the most important thing we can be doing right now is coming up with a plan for job creation and economic development," Udall said this week when asked after a field hearing on drunken driving why he wasn't planning any public forums to talk to constituents about the recent debt debacle. "We need to realize that people want us to get out of the deficit. The way to do that is to ... create jobs." He said many of those meetings will be "quasi-public events." A spokeswoman for Heinrich said he will spend his break meeting with companies and their employees and hosting a summer job fair. He will also be conducting a telephone town hall, which she said can reach a much larger audience at once than face-to-face meetings. By contrast, in southern New Mexico, Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican, is planning more than a dozen town hall meetings with constituents, Read more

From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - you live in a place like rural New Mexico, you can find yourself a long way from an airport. So the federal government subsidizes airlines to service rural communities out in the hinterlands to the tune of $200 million a year. In a federal budget of $3.7 trillion, that’s small change. But in a time of budget tightening, those airline subsidies – which make up the Essential Air Service (ESA) program — are under greater scrutiny. For example, the Associated Press on Friday (Aug. 12) released a story that was picked up across the country citing how just 227 people flew out of the little airport in Ely, Nevada while the airlines – usually flying twin-engine planes that seat less than 20 people – received $1.8 million in subsidies there. That works out to $4,107 per ticket, paid for by taxpayers. Sometimes flights leave with no passengers on the plane at all. Capitol Report New Mexico saw the AP story and noticed that four rural airports in New Mexico also take part in the EAS program and while three of them service a few thousand people per year, the airport in Alamagordo racks up almost as few passengers as that airport in Ely. Only 374 people hopped aboard flights in Alamagordo in 2010. That’s an average of just 1.2 passengers per service day. By looking at the federal records, the US government sends some $1.6 millon in subsidies to airlines providing service to Alamogordo, so that works out to $3,126.57 per ticket. Read more

Alamogordo 1 person fly out of its airport per day … fed subsidies to more than $3K per ticket

From STL JobWatch - By Steve Giegerich - The shipment arrived at the offices of the state Department of Economic Development within days of the governor launching a "bipartisan Made in Missouri Jobs" initiative. Inside were 6,000 carabiners — a trinket combining a key chain, flashlight and pen. The agency plans to give the items away at the Missouri State Fair next week. One side of the carabiner bore the insignia "Jobs.mo.gov." On the opposite side was a sticker noting the country that produced the gadget: China. Meetings were called. Department officials conferred. Finally, an email memo went out inviting "volunteers" to "assist with removing stickers from State Fair promo item." On the morning of Aug. 1, the senior staff gathered as requested in the conference room of the agency director. There, over doughnuts, a cadre of state officials proceeded to methodically erase all traces of China from 6,000 carabiners. Operation label lift occurred as Gov. Jay Nixon has been criss-crossing the state promoting the "Made in Missouri" jobs campaign and the Legislature is preparing for a special session over whether state tax credits should be used to lure a Chinese air freight hub here. In a statement issued by the agency late Thursday afternoon, the economic development department defended its actions: "The Division of Workforce Development went through the state procurement process to purchase these items from a Missouri-based business. Clearly, the division's preference would have been for the Missouri-based retailer to have purchased their supplies from a domestic supplier." Which raises a question: If the agency followed Missouri guidelines, why were state employees asked to hide the origin of the trinkets? "The division prepared the items for the State Fair, which included removing plastic baggies and any stickers from the items," the agency said. Reached late Thursday, Nixon spokesman Scott Holste declined to comment. Read more:

From World Net Daily - by Erik Rush - Let us not be surprised that the rhetoric of Democratic politicians, the establishment press, union bosses, career civil-rights activists, actors, rappers and assorted liberal miscreants has taken a foray into the realm of the truly bizarre. Yes, it is stupefying that some of these individuals have the temerity to say what they've been saying in public lately, let alone with a straight face. Let us neither be surprised that a segment of our population is either so intellectually indolent or thoroughly indoctrinated that they receive these words without laughing themselves into a hernia.
In recent weeks, liberals have charged that Republicans and conservatives want to destroy America, burn and blow things up, starve old people and children, and lay waste to our economy. The tea-party movement has been blamed for the downgrade in America's credit rating by Democratic leaders at the highest levels, a most absurd calumny since the machinations behind said downgrade were in progress long before the tea party came to be. While liberal charges against conservatives have always been on the inane side, lately they've been right off of a preschool playground. Calling American patriots Hitlerites, comparing them to history's worst tyrants and mass murderers – it's the shock value that's calculated to drive people into a frenzy of irrational fear. Just examine how socialist factions have historically demonized the opposition in order to harden citizens to the final solutions these regimes eventually come up with; you will easily see the parallel to what is occurring in America. Read more

From the LA Times - As he confronts the threat of another recession and turmoil in the financial markets, President Obama is being advised by an economic team that is noticeably short on big-name players — potentially hurting his ability to find solutions and sell them to Wall Street, Congress and the American public."When you ask about the economic team, it's kind of like, 'What economic team?'" said Edward Mills, a financial policy analyst with FBR Capital Markets. "They are very thin at a very critical time. They need all the firepower they can muster. Yet the team is missing a key messenger in selling Obama's policies. The post of chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors — an influential position — is vacant and is likely to remain so at least into the fall.When Obama took office in early 2009, he was counseled by an all-star economic team that included former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Great Depression scholar Christina D. Romer and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker.Also on the roster were well-regarded economists such as Budget Director Peter R. Orszag, Jared Bernstein and Austan Goolsbee. All of them have since resigned.That leaves Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner as the sole remaining top member of the original team. But Geithner is a financial markets expert, not an economist. And some analysts worry that the White House might not have enough economic expertise to fashion new proposals for boosting growth. Read more

From the New York Times - By MATTHEW L. WALD - WASHINGTON — As 58 million people across 13 states sweated through the third day of a heat wave last month, power demand in North America’s largest regional grid jurisdiction hit a record high. And yet there was no shortage, no rolling blackout and no brownout in an area that stretches from Maryland to Chicago. But that may not be the case in the future as stricter air quality rules are put in place. Eastern utilities satisfied demand that day — July 21 — with hefty output from dozens of 1950s and 1960s coal-burning power plants that dump prodigious amounts of acid gases, soot, mercury and arsenic into the air. Because of new Environmental Protection Agency rules, and some yet to be written, many of those plants are expected to close in coming years. No one is sure yet how many or which ones will be shuttered or what the total lost output would be. And there is little agreement over how peak demand will be met in future summers. The E.P.A. estimates that a rule on air toxins and mercury that it expects to complete in November will result in a loss of 10,000 megawatts — or almost 1 percent of the generating capacity in the United States. Electricity experts, however, say that rule, combined with forthcoming ones on coal ash and cooling water, will have a much greater effect — from 48,000 megawatts to 80,000 megawatts, or 3.5 to 7 percent. Read more

History tells us that listing a critter as an endangered species does little for the species and can do a great deal of harm to the local economies—the spotted owl and the delta smelt are two oft-cited cases. But there is not a big body of evidence showing how the listing decisions were made. It was just assumed that the species plight warranted protection. But that was before the listing proposal for the dunes sagebrush lizard threatened a large segment of U.S. domestic oil production and the economies of Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. Rallies in opposition to the listing have drawn hundreds of irate citizens, hearings on the matter have had overflow crowds, and the public register has pages and pages of public comment. Both ABC and Fox News have done stories on the lizard.

Sand Lizard

Acting on the outrage of his constituents and using his law enforcement background, New Mexico State Representative Dennis Kintigh gathered a group of independent scientists—several from area universities—who have spent the last several months reviewing the science underlying the listing. Their report will be released in a public meeting on Monday, August 15, in Artesia, New Mexico, in a roundtable format with the scientists available for questions.

Combining Kintigh’s FBI skills with the scientists’ expertise, the team is exposing fatal flaws in the proposed rule that should bring every previous listing, and the entire process, into question.

Dennis Kintigh

While the complete report will be available online on Monday, I’ve met with Kintigh and have a draft copy.
One of the biggest concerns is the supposedly independent peer review of the science on which the proposed rule is based. The Federal Register states: “It is the policy of the services to incorporate independent peer review in listing and recovery activities.” To the average citizen, the underlying science may appear to have independent peer review as five different universities are listed as offering review—however, no names of the individuals or their qualifications are provided.﻿

Desert Pupfish

﻿The anonymous peer review process is routine in scientific journals, but in such settings, there is an established and trusted editorial board and reviewers are required to disclose any conflicts of interest. But in Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings, the public should be appalled by the shroud of secrecy. This decision involves public money and has a large potential for direct economic impact on the surrounding communities, and, to a lesser extent, the whole country. At the least, peer review needs to be transparent. Better yet would be a process where advocates from each side can clash openly before independent decision makers. Read rest of column here: News New Mexico

Endangered Species Regulatory Process: Filled with Secrecy, Speculation, and Contradiction

﻿﻿Public Regulatory Commissioner Jerome Block continued to dominate the news pages in New Mexico this week. The string of news stories spelling out all of the dubious behaviors of Block led to a no-confidence vote from his fellow commissioners on Thursday. This followed calls from dozens of people on both sides of the aisle for his resignation. Block is a perfect example of why evaluating candidates carefully is important. Block pockets $90,000 a year from the taxpayers not to mention being reimbursed for untold amounts of “expenses” he believes he deserves. It appears the legislature will consider Block’s impeachment soon. Our stroll through the Sunday morning talk show circuit was revealing within a matter of minutes last week. While reviewing the videos of the talking heads it soon became obvious that the new phrase, “Tea Party Downgrade” would be the Democrat’s pat explanation for why Standard and Poors decided to reduce the U.S. credit rating. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky quickly responded to the phrase by likening the blaming of the tea parties for the debt downgrade to the idea of pointing the finger at the firemen when they show up at your house to put a fire out. Since our family home burned down ten years ago, and firemen bravely did what they could to keep the terrible night from being a total loss, we made it a point to never blame emergency personnel for providing assistance to us.

On Monday the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than three hundred points in early trading. Then President Obama decided he should make a speech to calm the markets before heading off for a vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. After again reassuring the 51% of American households that don’t pay any federal income taxes that he would continue to fight so they won’t have to bear burdens caused by the 49% who do pay taxes (but don’t pay their fair share), the markets plunged another 300 points. The proverbial phrase “enough said” seems to apply here.
Nearly one third of all letters sent to foreign nationals who were issued driver’s licenses in New Mexico were returned with the explanation “address unknown.” It is the strongest indication yet that there has been widespread fraud associated with New Mexico’s policy of providing the appearance of legitimacy to those in the state illegally. One can only wonder how many voted.

It seems that the University of New Mexico will pay a “consulting” firm to assist in the search for a new president. Many citizens ask why? The answer seems to be, “Because that is what we always do.” Common sense suggests thousands of applicants could be attracted by running a few simple ads. Faculty committees, volunteer community leaders, and regents could go over the applications. Yet somehow consultants can continue to convince university decision-makers only consultants can add the required "value" to the process by inserting a necessary search pacifier. Apparently these consultants will perform their services before “others” make the final call on the new prez. The cost to New Mexico taxpayers for the consulting firm’s debatable contribution to the process is $130,000.

It seems that just about everyone receiving health care in New Mexico makes a co-payment in these transactions. Everyone that is, except those who do not pay for their services at all. In New Mexico people living as far as 235% above the federal poverty level still qualify for Medicaid and do not make a co-pay. And that gap (the one between 100% and 235%) is by definition, the actual dollar value of the disincentive that New Mexico employs to discourage working and/or improving job skills. Until our citizens move far beyond incomes that are 235% of the federal poverty level, the act of "working" to earn more will continue to be punished in this state instead of rewarded.﻿ Government has not yet decided that people are not dumb and they can run their calculators. Maybe someday.

Miguel Garcia

﻿Representatives Andy Nunez, Alonzo Baldonado, and Governor Susana Martinez each appeared as our guests on News New Mexico this week. And each chuckled when we played a clip of Rep. Miguel Garcia saying that efforts to reform our driver’s license issuance laws were “divisive." Polls clearly indicate that as many as three out of four New Mexicans favor the reforms promoted by Susana Martinez, John Sanchez, and Dianna Duran (among others). Apparently it is getting very frustrating for Rep. Garcia and most Senate Democrats who find themselves completely unsuccessful in characterizing this particular dispute as a divisive, “Hispanics versus Anglos” show down. After hearing from Nunez, Baldonado, and the Governor this week, we realized Rep. Miguel Garcia only wishes this were a divisive issue.

Bill Richardson

And finally, the remnants of the Richardson legacy are lingering. Current HHS Secretary Sidney Squier was making the rounds in New Mexico gathering input on Medicaid reforms this week. On Wednesday she announced that sloppy accounting in the HHS department including under-reporting and over-billing during the Richardson administration, has revealed an additional $100 million shortfall in the Medicaid budget. Senator John Arthur Smith told the Albuquerque Journal the Medicaid deficit will eat up a substantial portion of the state tax revenues coming in ahead of projections in the spring. When it rains it pours.